Steem City has a certain feel at night, and those who dare to wander out into its darkened streets know that they will soon become entwined with both kinfolk and crook, beggars and saints, millionaires and musicians, artists and trolls.

Block upon block of digital concrete in every direction, a visitor to this city will find themselves quickly blending right in with all of the other stumbling lost souls, searching for themselves in one another's eyes or their wallets.

For the artists and entertainers of the world, this long dark night is nothing new. It's like home for them. They've lived through it before, and they all brag about it now.

Nights in the City, Back in the Day

On those long nights in the City back in the day, those of us without a penny in our pockets would roam the streets like little kings, our glistening crowns only dimmed with grime, tarnished by a persistent layer of soot and ash that fell from above.

Most of us didn't pretend to know what powered the streetlights, or what gave those three ancient digits on the City's logo its bluish glow. Most of us didn't try to understand the rumored wars that went on behind that tinted glass, but we all knew well the scarcity of things, especially when a city is designed to function on such scarcity.

Over by the museums was where the artists set up their booths during the day, but where were they now? When things are bright and sunny, they'll sit there all day for a few coins, but many will pack up at the slightest hint of twilight, and the sidewalks around the parks become quiet again.

At dusk in the City, beware of watching the street-performers as they dance so artfully around the park, as when the afternoon light gets longer and thinner, that dance becomes one of desperation instead of release, and those of us with barely a nickel to offer their tip basket might notice an unmistakable chill in the air around that time of day.

Down here on the streets of Steem City, a lot of entertainers still put on their freshest acts as the evening rolls on, but in these slim hours of the night, the sidewalks and subways tend to become mostly silent. The shops are darkened, and an air of survival is loudly present through the whispers of fear throughout the City's neighborhoods. Somewhere down this street though, music can still be heard, reefer can almost be smelled, and a jester has a crowd rolling with tales of nights past, when evening came and we all thought we were finished, and that time we thought we'd all surely been tricked into moving to this wild blockchain on the far edges of the internet.

We all knew what we were getting into when we moved to Steem City. Even the beaten Steemian who still has to ride the trains once in a while might notice that the subway only surfaces in the ghettos, the areas where any hope is long buried under a thick layer of dingy graffiti and exhaust. Indeed, such a train ride should give any Steemian who has a couple of SBD's to rub together a healthy sense of perspective as to their own status in this digital frontier City.

The Artist's Survival in the City

Some might stroll past these Steem City artists with their wares all set up on their spiffy little easels along the City's sidewalks and wonder how such an artist can possibly survive from day to day in this place. The answer might be that many artists and musicians already knew how to live on nothing before they came here, and they found Steem City to be much more rewarding than the places they'd lived before, offering inspiration to create new works and new acts.

Storytellers and poets could finally be heard, old compositions could be made new again, and just as sometimes the best stories are told in the dark, the artists, creators and entertainers of the world find lots to say when things get scary for everyone else.

The night sidewalks, smitten with shadow still. There was a hushed voice from across the street, something about nary a moon to at least light the way! It was that dark, and some supposed that the moon had perhaps flown off to be with another planet, one that wasn't so needy. It's alright either way though; those of us who've lived in the City for a while, we know how to live here with or without that fussy moon.

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images above are mine, 2018

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